It is already known from practice to use so-called furcation adapters to branch off optical fibers running in a so-called riser cable from the riser cable at defined positions of said riser cable and transfer them in the area of each furcation adapter into a tether cable. The optical fibers transferred into the respective tether cables are in each case a fraction of the optical fibers running in the riser cable, the optical fibers running in the tether cables having to be connected to optical fibers that are run in distribution cables. The connecting of the optical fibers run in the tether cables to the optical fibers run in the distribution cables can take place for example by way of connectors. In this case, the connectors then serve for connecting the first optical fibers, running in the tether cables, to the second optical fibers, running in the distribution cables.
There are known applications in which not only optical fibers but also copper conductors have to be run in the riser cable, the tether cables and the distribution cables, both the optical fibers and the copper conductors then having to be connected to one another by way of a connector. An application in which both optical fibers and copper conductors have to be run in the riser cable, the tether cables and the distribution cables is, for example, known as “radio over fiber” with distributed antenna systems.
In the case of so-called “radio over fiber”, a broadband radio signal is transmitted over the optical fibers to antenna units, which convert the optical signal into an RF signal, it being necessary for the purpose of supplying power to the antenna units for the above cables not only to be used for running the optical fibers, which serve for the transmission of the optical broadband radio signal, but also to be used for running copper conductors, which ultimately serve for supplying power to the antenna units.
In practice, when both optical fibers and copper conductors have to be connected to one another in such an application, separate connectors are used for connecting the optical fibers and for connecting the copper conductors. Handling the cables and the connectors then presents difficulties in particular when the cables are laid in cable ducts of narrow dimensions.